The present invention relates generally to a computer-implemented method, system, and computer product and, more particularly, to a computer-implemented method, system, and computer product for automatically generating distribution lists of invitees in an ordered manner for use in scheduling meetings in a way that is responsive to specifiable parameters.
Electronic mail (e-mail) messaging continues to be a major driving force behind the dynamic growth of electronic communications. An e-mail system includes the transfer of information by means of a networked communication. In such a system, a user at a computer connected to a network can simultaneously post electronic messages to anyone connected to the network at their unique e-mail address. Communication by means of e-mail messaging is often preferred to telephonic communications. In addition, multiple parties at diverse locations can be reached simultaneously at any given time. Clearly, these advantages have provided an extremely widespread and long-lasting impact.
Since the inception of e-mail numerous approaches for improving its ease of use and increasing its productivity have been developed. Groupware applications have, for example, been developed to enhance e-mail communications by successfully managing e-mail messages. These applications allow a group of users to access copies of messages, edit them and send responses to designated persons by the originator of the e-mail message.
However, scheduling meetings can be a relatively time-consuming task, especially when attempting to do so with a variety of individuals associated with a given subject matter. To accomplish such tasks, a meeting originator or user must independently and laboriously review diverse and often significant numbers of e-mail messages to generate a comprehensive distribution list related to a preselected subject matter for a scheduled meeting. Clearly, efficiency and productivity are adversely affected by the known approach.
Without the ability to provide distribution lists automatically for use in scheduling meetings in which the invitees are presented in an ordered manner and related by preselected subject matter, the true potential of scheduling is diminished. Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to automatically generate distribution lists for scheduling meetings in which meeting invitees are not only presented in an ordered manner, but are related to specified subject matter.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method, system, and product of automatically generating a distribution list for use in scheduling meetings following analyses of e-mail messages.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method, system, and product of automatically generating a distribution list for use in scheduling meetings following analyses of the subject matter of e-mail messages in which the invitees are listed in an ordered manner related by relevancy of their appearance in such messages.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method, system, and product of automatically generating the distribution list noted above in which the relevancy listing results from the application of parameters.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method, system, and product of automatically generating a distribution list for use in scheduling meetings following analyses of e-mail messages wherein certain messages are excluded in response to user-selected parameters.
An aspect of the invention is to provide a computer-implemented method and system of the last-noted type for automatically generating a distribution list for use in scheduling meetings in a computer network environment following analyses of related e-mail messages, preferably, by user selected search parameters.
An aspect of the invention is to provide an automatically generated distribution list for use in scheduling meetings, in which the list is presented to a user in response to setting up the meetings in which the number of potential invitees is limited as determined by resource limitations, such as the accommodation capacity of a conference room.
In this regard, the present invention is directed to a method of automatically generating at least a distribution list of invitees for use in a scheduling comprising the steps of: providing a collection of electronic messages wherein each one of the messages includes at least a recipient portion containing recipients and a subject portion containing subject matter; providing at least one search parameter for use in searching the subject matter of each one of the messages; matching messages by having the one search parameter match with subject matter having an attribute of the one search parameter; providing a relevancy ordering of recipients of the recipient portion associated with the matched messages; and, sorting the relevancy ordering of recipients to provide the distribution list.
The present invention is also directed to a system and computer product for achieving the foregoing process.